Understanding Rocks
by Michally
Summary: Faith and Spike's reaction to Xander vanishing into thin air. The second story in my Understanding Series.


Disclaimer: Neither the BTVS world nor the SGA world belong to me.

Thanks to my wonderful Beta, Sounding Board, and sister – Kakariki – without her this story wouldn't have been possible.

This is the second story in my Understanding Series and so probably won't make a whole lot of sense if you haven't read Irresistible Understanding first.

1-1-1

"Hey, Xan," Spike called from across the vault. "Your rock is glowing."

"Huh? Was that supposed to have dirty connotations? Cos I didn't get it."

Faith looked up from the pile of rocks in front of her just in time to see Xander vanish. She jumped to her feet, reaching for the knife in her belt.

"What the fuck?"

"Bloody hell." Spike was on his feet as well, looking around quickly. "Where the fuck did he go?"

Faith reached down, careful not to take her eyes off the room, and picked up a rock. She threw the rock at the air where Xander had previously been kneeling. It landed a few feet beyond where Xander had been.

"He's not here any more." Spike said, tapping his nose in explanation. "It's just us and all these fucking rocks."

"God damn it." Faith yelled. Where the fuck had Xander gone? _How_ the fuck had Xander gone?

Suddenly alarms began to sound throughout the room.

"Bloody hell." Spike groaned, holding his hands against his ears and running out of the room into the elevator area, stopping only to pick up a rock. Unfortunately the noise was just as loud there as in the vault.

"Guess this means Giles knows." Faith said.

"What?" Spike yelled.

Faith sighed and put her mouth near Spike's ear. "I guess this means that Giles knows."

"Yeah." Spike groaned and leant against the nearest wall. "He's gonna be pissed.

1-1-1

Spike was right, Giles was pissed. It took him ten minutes to have them retrieved them from the vault area, and then Faith and Spike were frogmarched to Giles' office where the Watcher was fuming.

"What happened?"

"We don't know." Faith shrugged helplessly, her ears still ringing from the damn alarm. "One moment he was there, bitching about the rocks, and next he was gone."

"Damn." Giles' took off his glasses and cleaned them aggressively. "He could be anywhere. Did he tell you about any plans he had? Any places he wanted to go?"

Faith forced herself not to look at Spike. "He said he was going to stick around to try and change your minds. Convince you that he really was Xander."

Giles looked sceptical. "That's it? Spike, did he tell you anything different?"

"Not a thing. He was all broken up that you wouldn't believe him." Spike answered, insolently leaning against one of the bookcases.

"So you have no idea where he might be now?" Giles asked, putting his glasses back on.

"No."

"And you don't know how he disappeared? He didn't tell you about any new abilities he had?"

"Abilities that involve disappearing into thin air?" Faith scoffed. "Nope. I'm pretty sure I would've remembered that."

"It wasn't him." Spike said. "He was holding a glowing rock just before he vanished."

"I see." Giles focussed on Spike. "Do you have the rock?"

"Na." Spike shrugged. "It disappeared with him."

"Oh." Giles sighed. "Very well then. I doubt we'll have any more need for you today. Faith, remember your flight leaves at eight Thursday morning."

Faith rolled her eyes at the expected dismissal. "Gotcha. We'll just get outta your hair then."

Giles just nodded absently and looked down at whatever the fuck was on his desk in front of him.

Faith strode down the hall and into the elevator, waiting only for Spike to follow her in, before pushing the button for the ground floor.

"Fucking Xander!"

Spike laughed bitterly. "It's not his fault."

"I know." Faith sighed. She waited for the elevator door to open before striding to the sewer entrance and then breaking into a run in the direction of their flat, knowing that Spike would be right behind her.

When they were a halfway home she slowed to a walk. "You have the rock right?"

"What?" Spike looked startled.

"I saw you pick up a rock before we left the vault." Faith snapped. "It's the fucking glowing rock. Am I right?"

Spike dug his hand in the pocket of his duster and pulled out a rock. "Yeah. Don't know how it works though."

Faith stared at the rock for a minute before breaking into a run again. They could figure it out at home.

1-1-1

Five hours later they were no closer to figuring out how to make the fucking rock work. They had tried everything they could think of from repeating Xander's last words before disappearing, to playing back an old voicemail message of Xander's that Faith had kept. Nothing worked.

"Fuck!" Faith threw the rock at a wall and then cursed again when it put a crack in the wallpaper.

"Deep breaths, pet." Spike said, sliding off the couch so he was on the floor next her. One of his hands rubbing her back.

"Where the fuck is he?"

"No bloody idea." Spike sighed. "But the scoobies are looking for him and as much as they piss me off, they're good at what they do."

Faith leant her head against Spike's shoulder. "And what'll they do if they find him first? Lock him up? Behead him?"

"They won't hurt him." Spike said. "Peaches won't let them. And if they lock him up, we'll just have to break him out."

"And if he's already dead?"

"He's not." Spike denied firmly. "This is Harris we're talking about. The boy was impossible to kill even when he didn't have super strength."

"You're right." Faith stood smoothly. "He's fine. You wanna patrol?"

"It's still daylight."

Faith bounced on her toes. "I'm sure we can find something to kill in the sewers."

1-1-1

It was almost midnight by the time they got back to their apartment building, and a significant dent had been made in London's demon community. In between the slaying they had been compulsively checking their phones for a new message, not that Giles was likely to contact them even if Xander had been found.

Faith checked her phone again as she followed Spike up the stairs to their apartment. No messages, fuck! Where the hell was Xander? She looked up from her phone just in time to prevent herself from walking into Spike, who had frozen on the stairwell.

"Spike?"

"Someone's outside our door." Spike whispered, gesturing up the stairs. "I recognise their scent."

Faith looked up the stairs. "Who?"

"No idea." Spike hissed back.

Faith sighed. "Are you going up, or what?"

Spike glared at her before continuing up the stairs silently.

Faith followed him up, trying to figure out who the hell would be waiting for them. It couldn't be Xander, or the scoobies, Spike would have recognised their scent – as creepy as that was.

Once that the top of the stairs Spike strode forward quickly, stopping only once he could see who it was.

"Xander's not here."

Faith raised her eyebrows in surprise and quickly caught up with Spike so she could see their visitor.

"I know. That's why I'm here."

Fuck! Faith froze beside Spike. It was Riley Finn, Xander's friend from the military, Buffy's ex, and the man Faith had practically raped when she had been in B's body.

"You know where he is?" Spike growled, stepping closer.

"Yeah." Finn nodded. "He sent me."

Fuckin' wanker." Spike snarled, pushing past Finn and unlocking their apartment door. "Sending bloody soldiers to my house."

"He's alright then?" Faith asked, gesturing for Finn to go into the apartment after Spike.

"Yeah." Finn nodded. "He's fine. I can't tell you where he is though."

Faith rolled her eyes and shut the door behind her. "Fuck that."

"I'm serious." Finn said. "I don't even know where he is."

"What?" Spike had lit a cigarette and was glaring. "What the fuck do you mean, you don't know where he is?"

"He's somewhere way over my clearance level." Finn explained. "Which is pretty impressive really."

"But you've seen him right?" Faith asked.

"No." Finn looked uncomfortable. "But I was given a message from Xander to pass on to you."

"Right then." Spike looked sceptical. "Let's have it."

Finn dug around in his pocket. "Just a sec." He pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it. "Xander said to tell you that 'sometimes Chaos Demons just happen. That he's safe and you should take the job.'"

"Wanker." Spike growled, but he sounded relieved.

"That means something to you?" Faith asked.

"Yeah." Spike nodded. "It's Xander alright." He turned back to Finn. "What job?"

Finn rubbed the back of his neck. "That's the other reason I'm here. Since Xander won't be working with us, we need help. Apparently he suggested that you two might be interested."

"Interested in what exactly." Faith leaned forward.

"Interested in working with my unit, like Xander was going to." Finn explained. "We have a pack of Prio Motu demons under surveillance at the moment, but there's no way we can take them out on our own."

"Bloody hell." Spike strode over to the table and rubbed out his cigarette in a dish. "Where are they?"

"Mongolia."

"How'd you find them?" Faith asked.

"They've been causing havoc in some of the smaller mountain towns." Finn said. "Word got out."

"And you want us to kill them for you?" Spike grinned.

"We want you to _help _us kill them." Finn corrected. "Apparently Xander thought you might be interested in a change of employers."

Faith looked across to Spike. "What do you think?"

"'M not agreeing to anything until I know all the bloody details." Spike said, throwing himself into a chair.

Faith grinned, this could be exactly what she and Spike needed. She sat down on one end of the couch and gestured for Finn to take the other.

"You heard the vamp, soldier boy, spill."


End file.
